MCC Second Compact to fund land, transport reforms

Malawi has chosen Land and farm to market linkage constraints as the areas for possible funding in the second Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact.

President Mutharika posing with MCC and Malawi Governent top officials-file photo

17October

The Chief Executive Officer for the Malawi Millenium Development Dye Mawindo was briefing the minister of finance Joseph Mwanamvekha in Washington DC during a reverse mission to the US emanating from Malawi's qualification for a second MCC compact.

The country qualified for the second compact in September 2018 following the successful completion of the first compact on energy.

Mawindo indicated that the logistical arrangements for the second compact are scheduled to run for 36 months and that if MCC agrees to the project components, it will commence in 2022.

Said Mawindo: “We are looking at land and what we are referring to as farm-market linkages constraints.”

He said the proposal has three components; production and produce at farm level; transportation and logistics to get the commodities to the market and; structured formalized market.

“If these are resolved, we think that they will be able to energise our people to produce much more and the transportation system will have been improved and that we will be able to get produced items to the market and themarket will be there to offer good prices,” said Mawindo.

MCC, a United States of America government agency, approved that Malawi’s second compact after the successful completion of the $350.7 million energy project.

Of the $350.7 million compact, about $238 million was invested in upgrading the national electricity grid to increase distribution and transmission capacity.

Through the MCC energy compact, implemented by Millennium Challenge Account-Malawi (MCA-M), capacity at Bunda substation was doubled, a 132 kilovolts (kV) overhead transmission line from Nkhoma to Bunda Turn-off was erected and construction of two 400/132 kV power transmission lines has since been completed.

The compact also added 12 megawatts (MW) following the rehabilitation of Nkula A Hydro Power Station which saw its capacity increased from 24MW. It also covered administrative reforms in the power sector to improve efficiency at Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) and Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera).

In the 2019 scorecard, Malawi scored 65 percent on controlling corruption from 59 percent last year in 2018, owing to increased prosecution of Cashgate cases and commitment by the government on legal reforms in the Anti-Corruption Bureau.